Hi everyone, for a couple years I've been yearning to get into kiting and last year finally took the plunge. I picked up a FlySurfer Unity 12m and now I need the board to go with. Having shelled out the money for a kite, being on a limited budget and what I consider fairly handy, I decided to build a board. I've been searching online for the past couple days looking for directions but only seem to be able to find information that's a little above my head for now. That said I would greatly appreciate the help that anyone here can offer. I'm looking to build something similar to the FlyDoor but am willing to accept any advice. Finally on to the questions.

-Is rocker necessary for a first board?(It seems like a lot of work for a first attempt)
-I want to glass the board when done but am not sure what people refer to when they say hot coat.
-Is a "cheater" coat of epoxy necessary before the glass mat?(I'm planning on using the West 207 epoxy and hardener)
-My girlfriends friend is quite a talented artist and may paint the board for me. At what stage in the glassing would it be painted and with what?

Again thanks guys and sorry to post so many questions for a first post.

A little bit of rocker goes a long way. Home made boards without rocker tend to splash you in the face, nose dive, and have poor balance. You dont need much rocker. Just a few centimeters is all it takes. I don't use epoxy, just paint and some spar polyurethane.

I would suggest to paint the core before glassing, but wouldn't bother to much on the first board, just to see how it turns out.
Use water based colors, or if you use some varnish colors, sand it before laminating.

Thanks guys, more great info. I think I am going to go with a 3/8" plywood board and try to throw in some rocker using zob's setup. I'm going to try and document/take picture during the build. At least that way if it turns into an abject failure it'll be entertaining. What's your opinion on rail shape? I would think fairly sharp, similar to a wakeboard, but really don't know.

I think the amount of rocker, width of the board, and shape have a lot more to do with the riding characteristics than the rails. Some say that square rails hold a turn better because it is sharp, but then others say that round rails hold a turn better because it lets the board sink more into the water.